HEXACO model of personality structure
The six factors, or dimensions, include honesty-humility (H), emotionality (E), extraversion (X), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C), and openness to experience (O).
The HEXACO model was developed through similar methods as other trait taxonomies and builds on the work of Costa and McCrae[2] and Goldberg.
This method, based on the logic of the lexical hypothesis, uses adjectives found in language that describe behaviours and tendencies among individuals.
Factor analysis is used on the adjectives to identify a minimal set of independent groups of personality traits.
[8] Ashton and Lee have developed self- and observer report forms of the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (HEXACO-PI-R).
(An additional 25th narrow facet, called altruism, is also included and represents a blend of the honesty-humility, emotionality, and agreeableness factors.)
The six factors, their facets, and the personality-descriptive adjectives that typically belong to these six groups are as follows:[10] The HEXACO model of personality started initial development in 2000.
[12] The other languages included: Dutch, French, Korean, Polish, Croatian, Filipino, Greek, German, Italian, Hungarian, and Turkish.
Agreeableness and emotionality from the HEXACO model represent rotated variants of their Big Five counterparts, for example, characteristics related to a quick temper are associated with neuroticism or low emotional stability in the Big Five framework, but with low agreeableness in the HEXACO framework.
[16] The HEXACO model is often used in research studies when behaviors or traits found on the agreeableness, honesty-humility and emotionality dimensions are of specific interest.
Honesty-humility and agreeableness both measure two different aspects of reciprocal altruism, high levels of which indicate a propensity for helping behavior and cooperation as opposed to the exploitation of others.
The honesty-humility factor has been used in a variety of studies as a measure of ethical or pro-social behavior (See Ashton and Lee (2008)[18] for further details).
The honesty-humility factor has been found to predict endorsement of unethical business practices [19] and even the degree to which a person will take health and safety risks (even towards fellow employees).
[23] For that reason, several researchers have used the HEXACO model to gain a more detailed understanding of the personality characteristics of individuals who exhibit traits/behaviors that would be considered along the dark triad dimension.
Studies using the HEXACO model have found support for the relationship between agreeableness and honesty-humility on pro-social and ethical behavior.
[30] Further research using the HEXACO model has examined the relationship between its various domains and scores on risk taking behavior.
[33] Other topics of study that utilized the HEXACO model include: religiosity,[34] prejudice,[35] ethical decision making,[19] academic performance,[36][37] and political attitudes/behaviors.
Facets of openness related to inquisitiveness and unconventionality show the strongest correlation with intelligence, in contrast to creativity and aesthetic appreciation.
[41] Strong meaningful associations are shown between the HEXACO model and job satisfaction, most notably the extraversion trait.
[45] De Raad et al. have argued that only three personality traits have fully replicated (i.e., appeared in all analyses) across cultures (extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness).
They further argue that claims of universality for the HEXACO model should be cautiously considered, since many languages and cultures have yet to be assessed with appropriate personality trait studies.
